In Europe, Fraunhofer is probably the best practice. They've done some pretty amazing work in the solar industry and in green technology. ITRI in Taiwan has done some pretty impressive work as well. Even some of those do some blue-sky research, but then they make it available to multiple companies, whereas with SR and ED, the funding is focused on one company, which does some research, and then the intellectual property is locked within that company.
If you can do the research at the level of a foundation, such as ITRI or Fraunhofer, and then push it out into the market, three or four or five or multiple companies can pick up the base technology and apply it to their own industry or market and develop it to build maybe four or five world-class products out of the same base technology, rather than just getting one, as when the IP is locked in.